What if you could pack on a solid five pounds of muscle almost every month? What would you look like one year from now? Are you kidding? Your physique would be outrageous! Radically different and unrecognizable because of so much extra muscle hanging off your joints. Well, in my estimation, Jonathan Lawson added at least five pounds of muscle to his already advanced physique in only one month—not one year, one month—and he’s been training for about 15 years. Add to that the fact that he did it while he was on a a low-calorie diet, and you can see the enormous muscle-building implications for you—especially if you’re not limiting calories, as he was. (Could you add even more, like 10 pounds of muscle, in one month if you followed his lead? Who knows?)

Lawson says the big key to his amazing transformation was X Reps, a power-partial technique he uses on specific exercises. This idea has a lot of science behind it. If you missed the first part of my interview with him, which discusses a lot of the research, go to Part 1 to get your muscle-building mojo moving. Now, to continue with the intense interrogation…

BL: So you do X-Rep power partials at the end of a set at a point where you think the muscle can fire with maximum-force generation—like near the bottom of an incline press. Why not just go right to the X Reps—you know, do heavy stand-alone X-Rep sets? Why not pack on the poundage, lower the weight to the X spot and blast out partials, and forget the regular full-range reps? Wouldn’t that be much more intense?

JL: Superheavy partials will hit the pure-strength muscle fibers, sure. And it could be a good addition to a full-range set or two. But bodybuilders need to train more than just one or two fiber types for full development. As I said earlier, scientists list more than five different types of fast-twitch fibers, which is the reason bodybuilders need to do sets with multiple reps—to build as many fiber types as possible. The size principle of fiber recruitment says that the low-threshold motor units fire first, followed by the mediums and then the high-threshold motor units. I think performing full-range reps makes that happen more efficiently—you get at more fiber types in one set. Then you move in for the kill with X Reps.

BL: Couldn’t you just do 10 to 12 X Reps and get the size-principle thing to happen?

JL: That’s an interesting idea and worth some experimentation. In fact, we’ve been doing that on some stretch-position exercises like stiff-legged deadlifts and flyes. Arnold used to do his flyes that way—just the bottom part of the stroke, which is like exaggerated X Reps. That seems to work best on stretch-position exercises where there’s no resistance at the top. Sissy squats would be another good one. Don’t come up more than halfway.

For most exercises, though, I think you should do full-range reps, or close to lockout, on at least a set or two to get more fibers involved. I think that’s especially true for contracted-position exercises like leg extensions, where you can flex the muscles against resistance. That will also help strengthen joints and ligaments through the full range to prevent injury. And you get more of a metabolic effect from full-range reps.

I think the bottom line as far as bodybuilding goes is that the more fibers and fiber types you can hit, the better your size increases will be. It’s the reason we do six to eight reps but mix in supersets and drop sets—and now X Reps, which seems to be the most effective of all. Trying to hit as many fibers as possible just makes sense from an overall muscle-density standpoint. You wouldn’t want to pump up only one section of an air mattress. All the sections need to be full to achieve maximum size. The same goes for the muscles. You won’t look your full, muscular best if muscle groups are partially deflated.

Since you brought it up, though, I will tell you that we’ve been experimenting with a version of what you’re describing. We do a straight set to failure and then immediately add weight for X Reps. We only rest long enough to get the weight on the bar—about 10 seconds. That gives us fatigue-product clearance. It’s kind of like Mike Mentzer’s rest/pause, only we’re using two different types of sets, a regular six-to-eight-rep set to failure followed almost immediately by a heavier X-Rep-only set. We up the weight enough that we can get about six ultraheavy X Reps.

BL: And what have you noticed? Any new gains?

JL: It’s still early, but I gotta say that four months after our photo shoot, using X Reps and those superheavy X Reps on a few exercises, with some drop sets and supersets thrown in for even more growth hormone production, has enabled [me and IM editor in chief Steve Holman] to stay very close to peak condition. And without a whole lot of volume. That’s pretty unbelievable considering that there’s no sense of urgency—no photo shoot looming—and we’re not eating nearly as strictly. We’ve both still got lots of veins crawling down our forearms and plenty of size and separation. That’s very exciting because in past years we were both flat and way off our best shapes two months after our photo shoot.

BL: You mentioned more GH production. Do you think that’s one reason X Reps work so well—because they jack up growth hormone?

JL: Absolutely. Research has shown that muscle burn changes the pH of the blood, which can cause GH to surge. And, believe me, X Reps burn. If you think about it, it’s very difficult to get muscle burn on compound exercises just by going to failure. Add X Reps, though, and you set the target muscle on fire with one set, which helps pump up GH production. And if you do X Reps on those big exercises, which are also the best testosterone boosters, you get a double shot of anabolic hormones.

Still, I think the main reason X Reps work is that they enable you to get past nervous system failure and continue to stress the muscle at its point of maximum-force generation. More GH is a bonus—and I’m sure it’s what’s helping us stay lean. GH has been shown to be a potent fat burner. I gotta say, though, that it’s weird to see veins in my forearms when it’s cold outside. I’m used to being pretty smooth in the winter.

BL: So you use the partials at the end of a set to get past nervous system failure and keep the muscle firing, right?

JL: Yes. We have research on that posted in the X Q&A section at our Web site. The research on the growth hormone connection is there too. I’ve seen some studies that say that the reason you end a set isn’t nervous system failure, but in either case you should still move to the point of maximum force generation and extend the set with partials to stress as many fibers as possible.

BL: Well, if nervous system failure is what stops a set, how do the pros get so big? Wouldn’t every set they do be ineffective at building more muscle?

JL: Not ineffective, just inefficient. They do set after set in an attempt to get enough stimulation to grow. They may get a slightly different fiber recruitment pattern on each set by adding volume, so they may get at a little more of the muscle, a few different fibers perhaps. Growth does happen, but it’s slow, and in order to do all of that work, they have to take anabolic steroids to enhance their recovery abilities and speed things up.

Drug-free bodybuilders can also do multiple sets up to a point, but eventually they will overtrain and go nowhere fast. Using X Reps makes it unnecessary to do an excessive number of sets, so you have more energy left for recovery. It’s much more efficient.

Of course, you still have to work and sweat. I’m not saying that X Reps will let you get away with those B.S. once-a-month 10-minute workouts that are all over the Internet these days. If it’s muscle you’re after, those routines are flat-out ridiculous.

One other point about the pros: Many of them use loose form, blasting the weight out of the turnaround—at the bottom of a press or a barbell curl. Watch Ronnie Coleman’s training DVD and you’ll see what I mean. Creating an explosive movement near the max-force-generation point does produce critical overload right where the muscle needs it for more growth stimulation, but it’s very dangerous to train with explosive moves. Using X Reps accomplishes the same thing without the danger of joint injury or muscle tear. You stress that critical point in an exercise’s stroke, only you do it at the end of the set, no joint jarring necessary.

BL: Won’t forced reps do the same thing as X Reps—get you past nervous system failure?

JL: No. Once again it’s an efficiency thing. You waste a lot of nervous energy when your partner helps you through the full range. Plus, his help isn’t very precise, so it’s hard to tell how much work you’re doing and how much he’s doing. Oh, and your strength varies throughout the full stroke, so that adds to the difficulty. But the biggest problem is that you’re not taxing the muscle much at the X spot—the max-force point that’s so critical to growth stimulation.

JL: You know, you may want to skip X Reps. Your testosterone is off the charts already. [Laughs] Anyway, instead of forced reps, it’s much more effective to do power pulses at the X spot at the end of a set. That way you increase the tension time on the most fibers at the precise maximum-force point. Remember, more force generation triggers more growth. With X Reps there’s no wasted effort; with forced reps most of the effort is wasted. There’s research on that at the site as well.

JL: Well, hyperplasia is still a controversial topic, but animal-based research has shown that it occurred as a result of stretch overload. What’s interesting is that a lot of the biggest bodybuilders use what we call X Reps to get stretch overload. For example, Tom Platz, who had some of the freakiest legs ever, did a lot of partials in the stretch position of specific quad exercises. One of his favorite spots was near the bottom of a hack squat, pulsing at the end of a set of full-range reps till he couldn’t stand the burn. Could that stretch overload have caused fiber splitting in his quads, and could it explain why he got such mind-numbing development? It could be partly responsible. The same goes for Arnold Schwarzenegger and those heavy partial flyes he used to do for his chest. By only moving through the bottom of the stroke, he created stretch overload—slightly exaggerated X Reps on a stretch-position exercise.

BL: Yeah, and Larry Scott used to do burns near the stretch point on preacher curls, kind of like X Reps. Maybe he was increasing his biceps’ size potential with fiber splitting every time he bottomed out with those partials. This is interesting stuff. I’m totally amped! Hey, are you still using Positions of Flexion training?

JL: Yes, that’s a given. POF full-range training is a must for full-muscle development, although we recently started splitting the positions over two workouts. For example, on quads we do midrange work, like hack squats, and stretch work, like sissy squats, at one workout. Then, the next time we work quads, we do hacks again for the midrange movement but this time combined with contracted-position work, like leg extensions.

That’s something else we’re experimenting with over the winter. During our summer ripping phase, however, we did all the positions in one workout, and we did X Reps on one set of almost every exercise. We’re still using X Reps on most exercises—and those superheavy X Reps I mentioned earlier. Those can be a bit scary, like on incline presses. Your upper chest feels shot, but you jump off the bench, add weight and then lower the bar to the X spot for partials anyway. I have to admit, though, they really hammer the muscle.

BL: Now that I’m part of the X-Men militia, do you have any specific diet recommendations?

JL: You don’t want to restrict your carbs too much. Even when Steve and I were in the last week before our photo shoot, our carbs never went below 140 grams per day. You need glycogen-and-creatine-loaded muscle to get them to fire as effectively as possible at the X spot. Otherwise, they’ll crap out early, limiting your gains.

BL: So the key X-Rep supplement is pancake syrup?

JL: [Laughs] Only if you use it immediately after you train—poured over whey-and-creatine flapjacks.

Seriously, right after the workout is prime nutrition time, the anabolic window, so you want to get plenty of fast carbs and fast protein to feed your depleted muscles. There are postworkout powders designed specifically for that time. Throw some creatine into the mix, and you’ve got the perfect meal for your most important feeding of the day. Loading your muscles with glycogen and creatine will give your X Reps maximum firepower.

BL: Can you outline the diet you used during the month when you made the transformation with X Reps?

JL: Sure. Keep in mind that this is my lowest calorie level—around 2,400. I also did lots of cardio as the shoot got closer.

JL: Yes. When I start dieting, usually around late March, my calories are more than 3,000. I make a couple of calorie reductions, working in higher-carb days along the way to keep leptin levels stable and to stay sane. I also gradually increase my activities to create a calorie deficit so I burn more bodyfat. Our new diet e-book, X-treme Lean, outlines all the specifics about leptin, cheat days, macronutrient ratios and so on. We’ve been experimenting with ripping diets for five years running, so we’ve learned quite a few important things along the way. Getting in ripped condition isn’t nearly as difficult as it used to be.

BL: My abs have been in hibernation for a while, so I’ll be checking your site for that—and may I suggest a gallery of X starlets using X Reps? That would certainly add to your Internet presence.

JL: Because there’s a severe shortage of pornography on the Web, right?

Most readers know Jonathan Lawson as the younger half of IRON MAN’s “Train, Eat, Grow” crew—he’s 31, and his geriatric training partner, Steve Holman, IM’s editor in chief, is 45. These cats have been blasting readers with killer training info in their “TEG” series for more than five years—and they’ve been hitting the iron together for more than 10 in the IRON MAN Training & Research Center. Their motivation? It appears to be devising new methods of iron-based torture for us diehard bodybuilders to inflict on ourselves—from double-drop sets to stage sets to Hypercontraction.

They experiment with a lot of techniques, enthusiastically passing along what they find via the pages of IM. Why? To help readers build more muscle—and also to make sure we are screaming obscenities in gyms everywhere right along with them.

Recently they stumbled onto a new training concept that took their muscle size, shape and density to new dimensions—X Reps. You may have seen the before and after photos. Let’s just say that the muscular transformation it helped them achieve in only one month is crazy. (I just started using it, and I’m already noticing gains—and more obscenities.)

After perusing their Web site, www.x-rep.com, I decided I needed to know the inside story. Since Steve got pissed at me after I told him he was a wuss for not benching heavy anymore, I decided to hit Jonathan up with the big Q&A.

BL: You guys call it X Reps. Isn’t that false advertising? I had visions of training with hot porn stars.

JL: [Laughs] That could be fun, but very distracting. Actually, Steve came up with the name X Reps as an abbreviation for extended reps. He coined that term years ago when we tacked on an all-out static-contraction rep to the end of a set of isolation exercises. You know, just hold and squeeze at the top when you can’t get any more full reps. He mentions that version of X Reps in Size Surge 2. That technique recently evolved into a much more effective version.

BL: Before we get to that new and improved version, tell me about the static thing at the end of a set. It didn’t work?

JL: Well, a static contraction at the end of a set has its benefits—it’s pretty good at increasing the nerve-to-muscle pathways [neuromuscular efficiency]—but we never found it to be all that productive for building muscle.

BL: So why do you think more muscle didn’t happen with static contractions?

JL: For one, we used it on contracted-position exercises at the peak-contracted point of the stroke—for example, at the bottom of a cable crossover, when the pecs are fully flexed. According to a lot of research, that’s the weakest point in a muscle’s range. Some articles in IM on isometric training got us thinking about the concept again. That’s when we decided that X Reps should really be at the strongest part of the stroke for more force production and more overload. We also decided that maybe we’d get better gains doing those static reps on the big, multijoint exercises, like squats or bench presses. After all, you get more muscle synchronization with compound exercises and therefore more overload. Compound exercises train the muscles the way they’re designed to function—as part of a team.

BL: I get it. So instead of using a static contraction at the end of a set of crossovers, you decided to put it at the end of bench presses.

JL: Right, but then we had to figure out the best spot in the range of motion to do the static holds. For the big exercises we wanted the spot where we could get the most force generation possible from the target muscle. Most researchers believe force is the key growth trigger, so we wanted to overload that spot in the range for as much mass stimulation as we could get.

BL: Stop! Let me guess: For the bench press you put the X near the top, where you can get the hardest pec contraction. Right?

JL: A good guess, but no. On bench presses the top is almost all triceps. You’re right—that’s where the pecs are closer to full contraction, near the top of the stroke, but as I said, the contracted position is one of the weakest points in the range. Scientists say that’s because the muscle fibers are too bunched up to fire properly in the fully contracted position. That’s why it’s so difficult to get the handles down to the bottom of a crossover toward the end of a set—you’re stronger at the start of the movement, when there’s some stretch in your pec fibers. You could keep doing reps in that stretch position after full-range failure because it’s the strongest point in the range.

That extra strength is due to the fibers being lengthened and perfectly aligned. Some stretch in the muscle is best for maximum force production.

BL: Hey, I just thought of something. That means you do your X Reps for squats at the bottom, after a set to failure. Are you clinically insane?

JL: No, actually, we do X Reps on squats just above the middle of the stroke. There’s a leverage shift at the bottom of a squat, which makes that position the wrong one for maximum force production. Every exercise has its own sweet spot that’s best for X Reps, so you have to analyze each one individually. You can’t really generalize, although near the bottom of the stroke on most is a good place to start.

BL: I saw your before and after shots. You say they were taken one month apart, before you started X-ing and then one month later. It looks like you put on 15 pounds of muscle. How much did you really gain, and what drugs were you on?

JL: I’ve never taken steroids in my life. Both Steve and I were completely clean, although we were using a variety of supplements.

That’s one reason we were both a little skeptical when we started our experiment—a lot of intensity techniques only work for drug users. Also, we only experienced small mass gains when we used static contractions in the past, but we decided to give it one more go.

Luckily, we documented our progress up to our photo shoot last year—we took photos at about one-month intervals, beginning in March. The so-called before photos at the end of May were just part of our progress monitoring. We would’ve taken them even if we hadn’t decided to try something new. We started the X-Rep program right after we took those shots at the end of May. We reduced our sets slightly because of the extra X-Rep intensity, and—Bang!—our bodies started changing incredibly fast.

To say we were shocked is an understatement, especially when we took photos a month later. X Reps work—at least they did for us—in a big way. I keep telling anyone who will listen that they have to try the technique if they’re looking for more size.

Oh, you asked about bodyweight. I weighed about the same in both pictures, around 205, but as you can see, I added a lot of muscle and dropped fat during that X-Rep-training month. If I had to estimate, I’d say I gained more than five pounds of muscle and lost an equal amount of bodyfat—and that was on a reduced-calorie diet.

BL: Five pounds of muscle in a month—on low calories? And you’ve been training for how long?

JL: About 15 years—10 years with Steve at the IRON MAN Training & Research Center.

BL: That’s pretty damned impressive. So tell me how to use X Reps on bench presses, and then explain the science behind them—why the technique works.

JL: Ah, Steve said the bench press is your favorite exercise. We don’t do it at the moment because we’re wusses, according to some people. [Laughs.] Here’s what you do: First you rep out—getting close to failure. When you reach the top on your last rep, you lower the bar to just below the midpoint of the stroke and do partial pulses, firing off a group of minireps. Oh, by the way, your pecs will burn, so be prepared. And, obviously, if you don’t have a spotter, do them in a power rack because after your X reps, the bar is going down.

BL: What the hell is a minirep? Sounds like you’re working out with Dr. Evil’s midget double.

JL: [Laughs] I describe them as minireps because we went to partials instead of static X Reps almost immediately. Holds didn’t feel right, and as we’d experienced in the past, they didn’t seem to be very effective at building muscle. The new power-partial version, moving the bar a few inches up and down, is what worked so well for us. The science behind that makes sense: Muscles are used to movement, not static contraction, so to get the most out of the sweet spot of any exercise, you need some dynamic action for the best fiber activation. On some exercises it may be impossible to pulse at the sweet spot, so you can do a static hold—but try to pulse.

BL: You said sweet spot again—and dynamic action. Are you sure there are no porn actresses involved in this training method?

JL: Oh, I’m sure. I am more excited about training than ever thanks to X Reps, but that would take the X-citement to a whole new level. And our e-book would be called The Joy of X instead of The Ultimate Mass Workout.

BL: [Laughs] So you think X Reps worked so well during that month because you used movement instead of a hold at the right spot?

JL: Yes, and we did those power partials at the end of a regular set on a number of certain big, compound exercises—the mass moves. We experimented with them on isolation exercises also, which we discuss in the e-book, but I think the X Reps on multijoint exercises gave us the majority of our quick gains.

BL: I saw your explanation about why you do regular reps first, before you do X Reps. It was on your Web site’s home page. Can you refresh my memory, ’cause I got an itch to do heavy X Reps all by themselves.

JL: The reason we do regular reps first, before we move into X Reps, has to do with the size principle of muscle fiber recruitment. It’s a domino effect: The low-threshold motor units fire first, followed by the intermediates, followed by the high-threshold motor units. So the early, easier reps prime more fast-twitch fibers to fire toward the end of a set. Those early reps act as a kind of built-in warmup as well as training different fibers.

When you can’t get another rep, that’s nervous-system failure. Unfortunately, that’s right when key fast-twitch fibers start to come into play. It’s the reason bodybuilders do set after set after set—in an attempt to make up for that nervous-system roadblock. They add volume in an attempt to get more growth stimulation. But just doing more sets usually results in only small increases—and depletes too much energy. So to keep gaining with that method, you almost have to use steroids.

If you move into X Reps at the failure point, however, you continue to get fast-twitch fiber activation, and you don’t have to use nearly as much volume to flip on the growth switch. We proved that on ourselves. As I said, when we started using X Reps, we gradually reduced our sets because we could tell it was intense work and giving the muscle a unique stress. After that it was fast-track gains—we got more muscular at almost every workout. In fact, our progress came so quickly, we were forced to move up our photo-shoot date by an entire month. It all really cranked up our motivation. We were so excited every time we walked into the gym that our intensity snowballed.

BL: So let me get this straight. What you’re saying is that regular reps prime the muscle for X Reps so you can get more fast-twitch fibers to work at the end of a set?

JL: Yes. And another reason for doing the full reps first is that you train many more fiber types that way, which can help build maximum muscle size. You may even get some slow-twitch fibers in there on the first rep or two. The more fibers you can beef up, the more mass you’ll develop. Heavy X Reps alone would train only the pure fast-twitch fibers. I’ve seen research that lists more than five different fast-twitch types, so despite what some people say, making the fastest mass gains depends on developing all fiber types, not just the pure-strength fast-twitch ones. Supersets, drop sets and X Reps all contribute to that effort, and from our experience X Reps appear to be the most powerful of the bunch. We may have even stumbled onto a more productive version, X Overload. We’re experimenting with it now, and our results have been impressive.

Editor’s note: In part 2, Lawson elaborates on X-Overload training. He also outlines his ripping diet and discusses how to increase GH and testosterone production in the gym, forced reps vs. X Reps and how stretch overload may induce hyperplasia, or fiber splitting. Part 2 of Lawson’s interview is in the March 2005 issue of IRON MAN.